Scientists have long believed that a universal genetic code serves as a blueprint for all life on Earth, dictating the structure and function of organisms from the simplest bacteria to complex humans.

While the central dogma of molecular biology outlines the linear flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to proteins (black lines), glycomics introduces a “3rd code of life”—glycans—that operates ...

In a giant feat of genetic engineering, scientists have created bacteria that make proteins in a radically different way than all natural species do. By Carl Zimmer At the heart of all life is a code.